Kill Your Friends review

Title: Kill Your Friends
Director: Owen Harris
Cast: Nicholas Hoult
         Craig Roberts
         Rosanna Arquette
         Ed Skrein
Certificate: 18
Runtime: 103 minutes

Based on John Niven's novel, Kill Your Friends is, simply put, American Psycho set in the Britpop music business. From Nicholas Hoult's sarky narration to the sex and gore, Kill Your Friends screams of Bret Easton Ellis' incredible satire of the New York yuppie. This film seems to try and pass imitation as inspiration, since to be honest, I was rather disappointed by this film. I love black comedy, breaking the 4th wall and the savagery of business (hence my love for films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and American Psycho), but the unoriginality on display and the fact that we aren't really given a single likeable character to latch on to makes this film a little dull and at times indulgent.

Despite all its attempts to make the new British American Psycho, Kill Your Friends is vastly different in one major way... It goes for a sense of realism. Whilst American Psycho at times was so over the top that it verged on cartoonish satire (just look at the character of Luis Carruthers),  Kill Your Friends doesn't have any of this, but just gives us a cold emotionless mess of a person in the form of Steven Stelfox, played by Nicholas Hoult.

Though it does seem like Hoult is trying his best, and at times he is so despicable he seems partially interesting, his performance never really moves past the phase of being annoyingly arrogant. Whereas there was the added element of mystery to Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman, due to his icy delivery being matched by a suave nature, Hoult just seems to be someone who has got to the top by doing nothing and using and manipulating others. It kind of makes it somewhat satisfying when things don't go to plan for him, Schadenfreude I guess. There isn't much charm in the horrific things said by the character here, comparing a record deal to the blueprints for Auschwitz or a band to a growing tumour. The jokes he comes up with in his sadistic little brain don't really come off as black comedy, and verge more on just harsh or gross.

The violence isn't actually as prominent as in films such as American Psycho, except for one scene of dismemberment, which is pretty gross. Beware as I may give a spoiler for American Psycho in the next few sentences (You have been warned!!). At least in American Psycho, the audience wasn't quite certain as to the legitimacy of the events taking place or if they are all figments of Patrick's imagination.

There is no denying the film is sort of stylish, and the performances aren't necessarily bad, but this feels less like satire, and almost more like the glamorisation of a savage world. Like Filth without the visions, or the possible sympathy for the protagonist; we are given an almost (and I feel sort of guilty for saying this) enjoyable film with some of the most despicable characters of the year.

5/10